In many electronic devices, such as mobile phones, tablet computers, personal computers, televisions, or the like, a user interface is provided to receive user input and control a display of the electronic device so as to allow a user to interact with the electronic device and its associated content.
Users may use user interfaces displayed on electronic devices to navigate to a particular node arranged in a tree or other hierarchical structure. A node arranged in a tree structure may have a single parent node of a preceding level associated therewith and may also have a plurality of child nodes of a succeeding level associated therewith.
As one example, a user may wish to use the user's electronic device to navigate to a particular product included in a product catalogue provided by an e-commerce merchant. Further examples include navigating a file system of a personal computer, or browsing a music library stored on a mobile phone.
Known user interfaces may provide the user with controls to discretely jump between levels of a hierarchical structure. Such controls typically require the user to navigate or scroll through many nodes before the user locates the node which the user is looking for. In some cases, the user may incorrectly navigate to a node thinking that children of that node will be of interest, only to find that they are not. In other cases where a user is not sure where to find a particular node of interest, the user may have to navigate into and then out of various nodes until the user finds the node of interest.
Existing user interfaces may not adequately deal with the problem of efficiently navigating tree structures at least for the reasons set out above. Therefore, users of electronic devices may waste time in, and become frustrated with, navigating hierarchical structures.
The present invention aims to alleviate these and other problems, at least to some extent.
The preceding discussion of the background to the invention is intended only to facilitate an understanding of the present invention. It should be appreciated that the discussion is not an acknowledgment or admission that any of the material referred to was part of the common general knowledge in the art as at the priority date of the application.